After two years just shy of a win, Kenya's John Korir has officially secured his spot at the top of the podium in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon -- and he did it in historic fashion.
Korir, who won both the 2021 and 2022 Los Angeles marathons, finished first in Chicago Sunday, completing a win years in the making.
Korir ran both the 2022 and 2023 Chicago Marathons, and despite running two of the fastest times of his career, finished third and fourth, respectively. This year's finish, which had an unofficial time of 2 hours, 2 minutes and 44 seconds, also marked an unofficial personal best and the second-fastest men's marathon time in history, behind only the world record-finish set by the late Kelvin Kiptum in 2023.
"You know, when we were coming here, we were going for the win," Korir told NBC Chicago at the finish line. "We were not going for the time. But you know, my brother and my coach said, 'You are ready and just believe in yourself and you can make it.'"
The 2022 Chicago Marathon represented Korir's first appearance in this race. In the 2022 version, he ran his personal best marathon time of 2:05:01, finishing third in that race. He followed up that performance in 2023 with a fourth-place finish and 2:05:09 time.
Korir debuted his marathon career in Ottawa in 2018, running 2:09:14 for a second-place finish. He earned his first marathon victories in the 2021 and 2022 Los Angeles Marathons.
Bank of America Chicago Marathon
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